A year into his first full-time teaching job, Newt Gingrich applied to be college president, submitting with his application a paper titled "Some Projections on West Georgia College's Next Thirty Years."
Newt Gingrich fashions himself as the history professor of the GOP presidential field. So what exactly was he like as an academic? Elizabeth Williamson on Lunch Break looks at West Georgia College, which employed the former Speaker in the late 1970s.
Mel Steely, a history professor who played a role in Mr. Gingrich's hiring in 1970, said the bid drew "a chuckle" from administrators. The following year, Mr. Gingrich applied to be chairman of the history department. That wasn't greeted so kindly, Mr. Steely said, with some favoring a longtime professor and World War II veteran.
"We weren't going to make Newt our chairman, but he liked the idea of competing for almost anything," said Mr. Steely, who later wrote a complimentary biography of Mr. Gingrich titled "The Gentleman From Georgia." "He figured 'I'm capable of doing this,' and it didn't bother him so much that it offended anybody."
FULL ARTICLE.
I had to read halfway down the article to get the juicy bits: didn't get tenure, huh? In the 1970's, when all it took was a pulse? He must have really a) not been doing his job or b) been pissing someone off.
ReplyDeleteWhat, after he tried to become college prez after his first year teaching, then wanted to be department chair in year 2? I bet his department thought he was just a super colleague! ps, I'm not the least bit violent but for some reason I have this persistent desire to punch that guy in his doughy, bigoted face.
DeleteAnd the old adage about never making a department chair out of someone who aspires to be department chair is now proven to be funny BECAUSE IT'S TRUE.
DeleteI gather that's when he must have been bitten by a vampire, which would explain his insatiable craving for human blood ever since.
DeleteWell, in all fairness (and as much as I hate even indirectly to be defending Newt), it's not unprecedented. Consider Robert Maynard Hutchins, who graduated from Yale Law in 1925, became *dean* of Yale Law in 1927, and then moved on to become president of the University of Chicago in 1929, at the age of thirty... where he served for 22 years, as arguably the most important and influential president in the university's history.
DeleteOf course, one key difference here is that Hutchins was brilliant and visionary, whereas Newt is mostly just ambitious...
Frog and Toad:
DeleteWorse yet are those who not only become chair but aspire to higher office. About halfway during my undergrad studies, the department got a new boss. The fact that he wanted the job was known even to some of the other students. After taking over, he proceeded to run the place into the ground and, after I returned there a few years later to finish my first master's degree, I was appalled by the damage he had done.
Then he decided that he wanted to be one of the university vice-presidents and actually got the job. I think the whole campus breathed a sigh of relief when he finally retired as he didn't seem to do a whole lot.
He looks like a flattering portrait of Dwight Schrute.
ReplyDeleteExactly correct. Dwight would want to be university president in his first year too. Little known fact: The entire premise of The Office is based on the life and times of Newt Gingrich.
DeleteAh, now we know why the protagonist of The Office is such an irrepressibly slimy, contemptible slug.
DeleteSomebody who taught at a university wants to be president? Good Lord! That would never work out well.
ReplyDeleteObama got tenure at a world-class university; Newt couldn't hack it at a podunk SLAC. It's hardly a point of comparison.
DeleteWoodrow Wilson was a history professor at Princeton, then president of Princeton University, then Governor of New Jersey, then president of the U.S.A. So you see, any kid can too grow up to be president.
DeleteI rather doubt that an earned Ph.D. could become president today.
But then, the American public is so bombarded by the media today, I rather doubt that even an overweight person could become president today. William H. Taft weighed over 300 pounds, and last year we saw what happened when Chris Christie considered running.
Heard an NPR story about a family from Texas who have been working Gingrich's primary campaign. "He's repented, he's fine! He'll be a good President now!"
ReplyDeleteSure. Cheating and power hunger all go away once you say you're sorry.
That's a bit like telling a reformed alcoholic, "You're all over that, right? Great, we want to put you in charge of a liquor store!"
I've long had the impression that politicians figure that the average voter has a memory span of, at most, 6 weeks. Anything that happens earlier than that is, hopefully, forgotten.
DeleteI believe the figure quoted by CNN was 9 days.
DeleteBut everyone remembers Obama's birth in Kenya, and that was 50 years ago.
ReplyDeleteThey also remember that the Earth is 6000 years old.
Delete